Press release from Chinese Film Festival Inc.

The Golden Koala Chinese Film Festival Committee held a press conference in The Executive Centre on 16 January. The committee officially announced that the 2012 Golden Koala Chinese Film Festival will be launched in Sydney on 5 February. Ray Argall, the President of the Australian Directors Guild and one of the jury members in this year’s film festival; Lida Law, the deputy director general of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Sydney; Sam Dong, the representative of the principal sponsor—TCL Electronics Australia Pty Ltd; Nance Lan Huang, the representative of China Southern Airlines; and Heng Chen, the representative of Huawei Groups showed up on the press conference. Ray Shen, Chairman of the Chinese Film Festival Inc. and the managing director of the film festival committee held the press conference and officially announced that the festival will be launched in Sydney and Melbourne from 5 -17 February. Ten nominated Chinese films coming from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan will be shown during the festival. People in Australia will have access to those unique and typical Chinese films.

The jury this year is made up of five world famous filmmakers from different countries, including Mario Andreacchio — the president of the jury (Australian), Ray Argall (Australian), Xie Fei (Chinese), Konstantin Thoeren (American), and Mike Walsh (Australian) (The introduction to the jury please go to the official websitewww.cff.org.au.). The jury will judge the nominated films in the spirit of justness, fairness, and openness. The list of award winners will be unveiled on the award ceremony in Dendy cinema located near the Sydney Opera House. The awards include best actor and actress, best director, and best film etc.

The most unique part in this year’s festival is the new media film awards. The organizer of the film festival— Chinese Film Festival Inc. has set up new media film awards in order to encourage new Chinese filmmakers. It also has a deep cooperation with Youku—the biggest video website in China. As a partner for new media films of the festival, Youku has established special webpage for the enrollment of new media films and has made a vigorous publicity for them. There are 20 nominated new media short films and new media length films. They include “Winner”, the new work by Chopsticks Brothers who become famous through the “Old Boy”; “Ai”, directed by the famous writer Lichuan Yin; “Angel in Night” by Yadong Zhang, the prestigious music producer in Asia; “Xiaoma” made by Yonghao Luo who becomes famous on the internet by his words; “Letter” made by Dongjian Wang, a young director; “I’m Not Brave” directed by Ao Shen; and “No Rest For Restrooms” directed by Hong Kong new prominent director Angelina Zhu and etc.

As one of the major events in the film festival, the opening ceremony and award ceremony will become a star-studded event. The celebrities include the Hong Kong’s famous actor Teddy Robbin, Hong Kong film award for best supporting actress Yinyin Shao, the famous film and television group Chopsticks Brothers, Taiwan director Ta-pu Chen, the lead actress in Pick the Youth Manhua Gao, and the nominated new media film director Dongjian Wang. All the jury members and people from Australian government and all walks of life will appear on the festival. The most important guests for the opening ceremony are the winners of the Golden Koala Award. They will collect their awards personally on the stage. The famous host in SBS— the Australian national TV station and a famous Chinese host will preside over the ceremony together.

As one of the major activities in the festival, there are two films released in the star meeting event: Main land of China film ‘Let Bullets Fly’, Taiwan film ‘Pick the Youth’ released in Sydney and Hong Kong Film ‘Merry Go Round’ in Sydney and Melbourne. The cast members will meet the audience and share their feelings about the films.

As the core event for the film festival, the Australia International Chinese Film Forum jointly organized by the Chinese Film Festival Inc (CFFI), Australian Directors Guild (ADG) and the Confucius institute of University of Sydney is going to be held during the festival. During the forum, the guests of the film festival will have a deep exchange and discuss with the government officials in Australian film industry as well as professional institutes regarding to the cooperation and internationalization of Chinese films.

With the help of Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Sydney, the forum will add Hong Kong unit in Sydney and Melbourne. The cast members of the nominated film Merry Go Round will be present and give speeches as the guests. “The Golden Koala Film Festival (GKFF) makes a significant cultural contribution to the film industry by highlighting the creative spirit of Chinese and Hong Kong films on Australian shores,” says Ms Law. “HKETO are very pleased to be partnered with the GKFF to showcase such a great cross section of Chinese and Hong Kong movies.

The Film Festival was successfully held in Australia with the help from many enterprises. The representatives from the principal sponsor of the film festival TCL Corporation and the exclusive airline partner China Southern Airlines both delivered a speech to congratulate the success of the festival, the representative from Huawei Group, The Executive Centre and other festival sponsors were also present to express their congratulations.

There were tens of Chinese and English major media correspondents coming to the scene to do the reports, they included Australian National SBS TV station and radio station, Xinhua News Agency, China Radio International, Sing Tao Daily, Australian New Express Daily, etc.

As the most influential Chinese culture brand activities in Australia, the Sydney and Melbourne Governments have given a lot of supports and help. The flags of the film festival will wave in the central areas of the main cities in Australia. This Chinese cultural event will attract people’s attention and will play a positive role in international promotion of Chinese culture.